Life Plan B

Any planning people here today? When I say, planning people, I mean the ones who like to schedule most everything out that can be scheduled. I am talking about the hyper-organized people? I like to pretend to that I am. I make plans. I also work hard to honor commitments I have made. I like things to begin on time, and end on time. I don’t particularly like to make plans beyond a couple years at a time, and that is mainly because it is impossible to know what is going to disrupt the plan.

For instance, our last fairly normal worship service here in this building where we had a full attendance, and potluck, and no masks. March 14, 2020. And then from there our church has adjusted from Plan A, to Plan B, to plan C & D and so forth. But one thing has been very apparent to me throughout this unique time in our life, and that has been God has been with us throughout it all.

Some of us have hit some real challenging times financially. Some of us have battled illness, and our bodies failing. We have not been without a number of COVID cases. We have had to grieve some we have lost, and some very recently. Did any of our hyper-organized planners, plan ahead at New Years 2020 for a pandemic that would affect the entire planet? It has been a hard thing to come to a realization that things have not gone according to plan.

As recent events have unfolded this week, I believe 2021 will also be a somewhat difficult year to plan for.

How does God expect us to respond when things don’t go according to our plans? Does he not want us to make plans at all?

Does God want us to not have dreams or Earthly aspirations?

Why does he allow the rug to seemingly be pulled out from underneath us without much warning?

If you are like so many people I have met, your shattered dreams may have left you wondering if God is still actively involved in your life. You may have been tempted to wonder if He even cares or if you’re to broken and bruised to be healed by Him. You probably wonder quite a lot about what to do next.

No matter what has happened or how you feel, please know you’re not alone. Because here’s what I am learning: Everyone needs healing. Everyone.

Everyone is not okay sometimes.

Everyone has experienced a punch to the gut at some point and been disappointed one way or another.

Everyone needs healing from our brokenness. Everyone.

Quick Side note: We all experience different levels of pain. Just because some of us have felt some sort of pain that may appear at a more intense level does not discount the pain others may be feeling even if it is a degree lesser. As an example there are plenty of parents here with teenagers. You know the hurt they can bring home. Often their experience of hurt doesn’t always fully reflect a real world level of hurting out there. They haven’t yet had to stress how the bills get paid, or maybe haven’t experienced the loss of a loved one. But their hurt is still real and is still the most pain they have experienced to that point.

Other people’s facebook page may show all the highlights of the good things happening in their life and might even appear as if they have no problems. When in fact a marriage is crumbling, miscarriages take place, or behind all the stuff that person has acquired or the vacations that person seemingly has the money to go on, is a mountain of stressful debt.

As long as sin still exists, Everyone in this room needs healing from brokenness. Everyone.

I think the big struggle for many of us believers in Jesus is; is that God does exist yet so does a lot of pain and suffering. You read in the Bible many many examples of good faithful, people subjected to a a suffering, they seemingly didn’t deserve. Today we are going to touch on that.

Pete Wilson, pastor of the Crosspoint Church in Nashville, TN writes,

“What do you think our response is to be when we go from the good-news parts of life into the bad news season where everything seems to be falling apart, from our desired plan A into a plan B we never asked for and don’t want? I think there is a question that can lead us into a deeper more intimate relationship with God… if we have the guts to ask it.

The question is this: What would you do if you were absolutely confident God was with you?

Before we go further, lets take a moment for prayer.

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If you have your Bibles I want to refer you to the gospel according to Luke, chapter 8 verse 22.

Luke 8:22–23 ESV

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.

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Desire of Ages comments on this story:

Desire of Ages Chapter 35—“Peace, Be Still”

Absorbed in their efforts to save themselves, they had forgotten that Jesus was on board.

Can anyone relate to this experience, of being in crisis. In forgetting God is right there with you through it all? If any one here is unwilling to admit they have felt this way. I’ll admit it happens to me almost daily just at the frustration of not knowing where my car keys are. change slide

Luke 8:24–25 ESV

And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Let me ask you all a question to ponder.

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How could Jesus possibly sleep on boat in the midst of a violent storm?

Have you ever seen the movie the Parent Trap? There is a scene in the classic addition with Hayley Mills as well as the Lindsey Lohan remake in the 90’s that shows the girls discovering they are twin sisters. One sister, begins to ask about eating, and the other says, “How can you think about your stomach at a time like this?” In other words how can you be thinking about food when something so monumental is happening.

The disciples were trying to prevent the boat from going down, and they wonder. “How can Jesus be SLEEPING at a time like this?”

Is that what is happening in during the storms in our life, Is Jesus just asleep?

Levi and Sarah interview

I wanted to invite Levi and Sarah back up here.

Some of you may be aware, in the latter half of 2020 Levi found unfortunately lost his job which is actually the job that brought him here led him to join this church family.

Levi, now I want to ask you kind of an odd question. What was your initial feeling when you found out? (Were you upset, scared, relieved?? anxious?) Did you know at all it was coming?

Sara, would you share how you were feeling when Levi told you?

What did you guys go do almost immediately after finding out? Why?

Were there conversations with God during this time? Did he answer, or was there silence?

Were there any discouraging moments in between losing your job and finding a new one? Did you discover any blessings?

Levi and Sarah were by no means the only members of our church family to have some difficult moments and have to adapt to a plan B. In the church office we find ourselves praying for all sorts of circumstances that have come upon.

So back to my question and our story, how could Jesus sleep in the middle of the raging storm?

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Desire of Ages reads:

When Jesus was awakened to meet the storm, He was in perfect peace. There was no trace of fear in word or look, for no fear was in His heart. But He rested not in the possession of almighty power. It was not as the “Master of earth and sea and sky” that He reposed in quiet. That power He had laid down, and He says, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30. He trusted in the Father’s might. It was in faith—faith in God’s love and care—that Jesus rested, and the power of that word which stilled the storm was the power of God.

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As Jesus rested by faith in the Father’s care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. Their fear in the time of danger revealed their unbelief. In their efforts to save themselves, they forgot Jesus; and it was only when, in despair of self-dependence, they turned to Him that He could give them help.

White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 336). Pacific Press Publishing Association.

My mom goes to the YMCA and swims whenever she can in the mornings before work. Over the years she made a friend who often shared the same routine of getting ready after the excercise. Mom told me once one of the reason she loved spending time with her Y friend, Kathleen, was because of how sweet and positive she was every single morning. Getting to know her further, she learned this woman had had many things in her life happen that would have led her to having a more than a few bad mornings. (marital issues, adult children causing issues, and more). Yet every morning you would have never known it. One day my mom pressed her, how are you okay??? Her response? Resting in Jesus.

She was living confidently that God was with her

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Pastor Pete Wilson writes in his book, “Plan B” pg. 67

“When you respond in your current circumstances as if you were confident that God is there, you will see God in the circumstances.”

I think there is some real truth here. It doesn’t mean just because we get angry or have a difficult time with a particular life circumstance, we don’t believe God is out there. But for me when I really contemplated this, I experienced a bit of a paradigm shift in thought.

What would be more scary? Being lost in the woods, or being lost in the woods with a masterguide pathfinder. I’ve lived that story and shared it. When we stop and realize God is with us, we can be empowered to step through the great obstacles of fear in front of us.

I suspect though there are some here who have experienced their fill of the hard times. As I have surfed facebook over the latter quarter of 2020. There has been a lot of posts saying to some degree they couldn’t wait to see 2020 be over with. Like having the ball drop at New Years Eve magically erases the pandemic, or the racial strife, or the politcal divide that propagates hatred. We learned very quickly this new year the great controversy continues.

I think many of us have entered into 2021 looking out for land mines, afraid of what else could be out there. Quite frankly, I think that is what the devil wants. He wants us to be scared. He wants us to believe God has abandoned us and that we face life’s challenges alone.

But the truth is God is there. Our problem is when we allow our circumstances to distort our view of God. That happens so easily when we’re reeling from bad news, or tragic events in our lives. There is nothing like the painful whiplash of a painful situation to leave us feeling that God is, indeed, a million miles away.

Maybe this is how David felt when he wrote this psalm. change slide

Psalm 42:2–4 ESV

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

We may not like to admit, because maybe we feel petty or immature, but when things are not going as planned in plan A, we get the sense of being abandoned. Don’t we tend to wrap our plans, and our dreams, and our desires around our concept of God’s presence so that when these elements mentioned, don’t go our way, we assume or rationalize God just isn’t involved or out there anymore.

Yet I believe the truth is: (and feel free to write this down). If we will pay attention, we will find God is most powerfully present, when He seems most apparently absent.

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Desire of Ages reads:

Desire of Ages Chapter 35—“Peace, Be Still”

How often the disciples’ experience is ours! When the tempests of temptation gather, and the fierce lightnings flash, and the waves sweep over us, we battle with the storm alone, forgetting that there is One who can help us. We trust to our own strength till our hope is lost, and we are ready to perish. Then we remember Jesus,

I want to continue that quote first I wanted to share a story I recently read about, that moved me very deeply moving.

I shared this with the Elders last tuesday.

In September 2001, Christian recording artist Tammy Trent and her husband Trent (apparently she took his first name as her last) were in Jamaica for a mission trip. They had arrived a few days before the mission trip so they could enjoy some vacation time together.

Trent decided he wanted to go diving a little bit on their last day. He was an experienced certified diver. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He was free diving while Tammy was in the boat catching some sun. He said he would just be about 15 minutes. He was actually free-diving with no oxygen tank, so every little bit Tammy would see her husband coming back up for air. Then Tammy began to attempt to read her magazine and even daydream watching the beautiful scenery.

Then she realized it had been 30 minutes since she had last seen her husband come up for air.

It was one of those moments you try and calm yourself and think it couldn’t possibly be what you think it is. But soon the fear was to much and she had people searching for him. Professional search divers were even brought in but no one could find Trent. Because of night approaching, they had to call off the search.

Tammy got the call the next morning, Trent’s drowned body had been found.

Obviously, Tammy’s heart was shattered with grief. Even worse she was in a place alone, not knowing anyone. She was away from her friends and family and church.

Tammy was in shock, feeling helpless and hopeless. She became numb. She describes knowing God was out there, never really doubting that, but still feeling 100% alone.

The next day she was sitting in her hotel room trying to get her head around what had just happened, when another guest called her and told her to turn on her television. She did so just in time to see a jet plow into the twin towers of the world trade center. That day was in fact september 11, 2001.

Tammy looked on in more shock., thinking What does this mean? Her world was completely falling apart. What now God? What now?

Obviously with the 9/11 attacks now all air travel was all grounded, and there was nothing she or her friends and family could do to get her home for a while. So she just continued to stay at the hotel.

It was there, Tammy would have another unbelievable experience. She began to cry and weep uncontrollably. She called out to God. I need you to be real. I need you to be real to me right now! God can you see me? Can you hear me???

God! If you can hear me, could you send someone to hold me??? I am not asking for 1000 angels or even hundreds, just send one, one angel to hold me?

Silence.

Tammy sat for a while and then got up and puttered around the living area. She heard someone outside moving around, so she stuck her head out into the hall and saw a cleaning lady, a beautiful Jamaican woman standing there.

Tammy asked, Ma’am would you mind coming and making my bed?

The woman replied, “Yes, but also I’ve been trying to get to you. I could hear you crying. Could I just come in and hold you??

Tammy recalls, it was an instant answer from prayer. It was a moment where God made his presence evident just enough to let me know, I was not alone.

Writing in from his book Plan B, Pastor Pete Wilson asks Tammy if she could give others, who are going through their plan B experience, any advice. She says, “ I would tell them to step back from the chaos. We can’t see clearly when we’re in the middle of it. Take a deep breath. Let the wind blow across your face. Whatever your challenge you will get through this… because no matter how things look, God is with you.

To continue my earlier Desire of Ages quote:

Desire of Ages Chapter 35—“Peace, Be Still”

Then we remember Jesus, and if we call upon Him to save us, we shall not cry in vain. Though He sorrowfully reproves our unbelief and self-confidence, He never fails to give us the help we need. Whether on the land or on the sea, if we have the Saviour in our hearts, there is no need of fear. Living faith in the Redeemer will smooth the sea of life, and will deliver us from danger in the way that He knows to be best.

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January 6, 2021 most anyone who has a facebook page and spent a little time perusing people’s analysis of what took place at the capitol. One look at just about anyone’s post led to an argument in the comments section. People were understandably hurt and upset.

In 2020 we had our fair share of days where stories went viral and people were quick to anger and fight, and hurt.

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What if in the next tragedy to go viral we take Tammy’s advice. What if we shut down our computers and smart phones, and televisions and took a break from the chaos. Lets take a moment to allow God to reveal himself to us and give us the comfort that we will get through this.

If we believe what the Bible tells us about the world before His coming, we know it is only going to get worse. Why not fix our eyes on Jesus. When I picture His coming in the clouds, I almost see him bursting through storm clouds with his light. It may be similar to him standing up in the boat and commanding the wind and the waves to be still, and to be quiet. In that moment, the storm will be over.

Church family

Your storm, your pain, your tears....it is temporary. God has not abandoned you in the midst of your plan B adjustment. Take heart and know that you do not have to be OKAY to when you come to the sanctuary for worship. When someone asks you how you are. Don’t say you are fine if you are not fine. If you need prayer. Ask for it. There is no shame in not being okay.

Today I am not asking you to like Plan B. I am encouraging you to know God has not abandoned you to it. Go into plan B with the same confidence of plan A, that God is absolutely with you.

Rest in the loving arms of your savior today.